What started out as just a cycling track following the success of the London Olympics in 2012 has become a training hub for world and Olympic champions.

The Cyclopark, in Gravesend, opened 10 years ago as simply somewhere to ride bikes and skateboards – but a lot has changed since then.

The boss of the Cylopark Charitable Trust, which runs the park, Simon Jones, says it's been a "fantastic" journey to this point: "We are continuously adapting and changing.

"When we first opened, it was a brand new facility and just after the Olympic games. It was a road circuit, mountain bike trails, skate park and fantastic play park.

"Like any new project, it was the first of its kind but it was not sure how it would develop. It was a cycling track.

"We are a charity but to begin with it was not clear what we wanted to achieve. We were just a cycling facility and just bobbed along.

"Now we have set up clear goals of what we want to be and where we want to go in the next four years and this has opened up lots of doors.

"It has been a bit of a journey for us over the last 10 years. We have now started our new fitness programme to help make the community healthier and fitter. It is all really exciting.

"It has gone from a cycling facility where people would just pay to go around the track and hold events to a community hub and asset."

The multi-sport open-air centre includes bike tracks comprising a 2.9km hard-surface course for road bikes, a 330m BMX race track and a 6km track for mountain biking.

It now has around 1,400 members, hosts 86 different fitness classes, has a gym and physio centre, cafe, skate park and children's play park. It also hosts a weekly 5k park run on Saturday mornings.

The site in Watling Street also holds specialised disability sessions, seated fitness classes, has adaptable bikes, a Learn to Ride scheme with schools and hosts activities for dementia groups.

Simon, who has been with the charity for four years, added: "We have also wanted to do something for the community which is affordable and valuable to many people.

"We want to make a difference and work with people to do that. We are supporting the local authority and asking how we can work with it as a valuable asset.

"We are talking to the councils about how we can support some of the challenges they have so we see ourselves as a really, really important community asset.

"We want to help with whatever the local needs are. We are also trying to open up opportunities for young people because that is important to us."

One of the things the trust noticed was many families are unable to teach their child to ride a bike due to the cost of the equipment so it used funds raised through membership payments to create free places.

Since April, it has taught 301 people to ride a bike of which 100 learnt for free.

Despite its success, like most organisations, it hit a bump in the road when Covid hit in 2020.

"One of the challenges for us, like a lot of other facilities, was the pandemic where we opened our doors still, not inside but outside," said Simon.

"We tried to be creative because we thought it was really important for people's mental and physical health to still participate in sport where they could do.

"We controlled the amount of people coming through and found a lot of people were still coming for their hour of exercise outside.

"We tried new things and made changes so we could keep going. We had membership only access and ran everything we could like the cycling track from outside.

"If we had not been able to open in that way, we may have had to close down. We relied on the good will of our memberships. We needed to do what we needed to do."

The Cyclopark also hosts national championships and regional races in BMX and Cyclocross and was even the host for the 2019 Women's Tour – a women's cycling race.

It has also become the stomping ground for BMX champions Kai White and Beth Shriever and commonwealth gold medallist Johnboy Smith who unveiled a commemorative plaque for the new pavilion as part of the 10-year celebrations.

The 32-year-old, from Gravesend, is a wheelchair racer, and the first athlete with Romany heritage to compete at the Commonwealth and Paralympics Games.

He can also often be found training on the Cyclopark circuits before opening hours. He said: "I have always been well-looked after here.

"I have been coming here training and achieved two Commonwealth medals, one Paralympic games. So I started from nothing and have not done too bad. And in between all of that is Cyclopark – what more can I say."

Chairman of Cyclopark Charitable Trust board of trustees, Norman Blissett, said: "Johnboy shows what can be achieved with the right mindset and access to great facilities.

"Achievements like Johnboy’s make all the efforts of the Cyclopark team, from employees to volunteers, worth it.

"We look forward to continuing to support him, as well as the next generation he inspires."

Earlier this year, the freehold was up for sale and bought by firm Challenger Gravesend for a mammoth £1.2 million – almost three times more than the guide price.

The 38-acre site is leased to Kent County Council (KCC) on a 50-year tenure and has been since 2010.

Simon assured that the sale has not and will not have an impact on how the park operates and it would be "business as usual".

"What became clear to us through this period is how highly valued Cyclopark is to our communities," he added.

"This has given us increased appetite to continue to evolve what we offer our valued customers and volunteers and continue to listen to their suggestions, much of which has made it into our 2022 plans."